1. The population boom

2. Economic development in 19th century Britain
Population
Agricultural Revolution
Industrial Revolution

3. Lecture outline
I/ The population boom
II/ Rural exodus

4. I/ The population boom

5. Outline A) An increase in population B) The census
C) Population and the Agr. Revolution

6. Introduction: Britain in 1815
Largely rural
Sparsely populated (13 million inhabitants, 3 cities of more than )
Few roads, few schools and only a minority had the vote

7. Introduction: Britain in 1914
The population had more than trebled
Mostly urban population
Highly literate
A majority of men had the vote
 « Politics had been transformed from the pastime of the landowners to something recognisably similar to the business it is today » (Years of Expansion p.2)

8. A) An increase in population

9. Population growth
= fastest population growth ever in the UK.
1815: 13 million inhabitants.
Doubled by 1871.

10. Fertility, birth and mortality rates
Increase in birth rate
Biological reasons
Social reasons
Drop in the mortality rate
Limited impact of wars and epidemics
Improvement in living conditions
!! Social and geographical disparities !!

11. B) The census

12. The earliest census attempt
First census in England = Domesday Book (1086), compiled for tax purposes
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Source: historyof information.com

13. Source: Wikimedia + abhsscience.wikispaces.com
Thomas Malthus ( )
toric_figures/malthus_thomas.sht ml
1798: An Essay on the Principle of Population
Source: Wikimedia + abhsscience.wikispaces.com

14. John Rickman ( )
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1798: 12 reasons for conducting a census (taken up in Parliamentary debates)
Source:dustshovellersgazette.blogspot.com

15. Decennial census
1801: first census of the general population of Great Britain (1811 UK)
: purely statistical censuses.
1841: first census to record the names of all individuals in a household or institution.
Source: histpop.com

16. C) Population and the agricultural / industrial revolution

17. A consequence or a cause?
More productive agr. + more manufatured goods  better living conditions  lower death rate.
A cause:
Larger population  more labour force + larger market.

18. II/The population shift to towns and cities

19. Urban development 1800-1830: Birmingham and Sheffield doubled in size.
Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow.
Inversion of balance rural/urban populations = between

20. London
1820: 1,274,000 inhabitants
[Population of Paris in 1847 = 1, 053, 897 ]
1901: 4.2 million inhabitants

21. London, centre of the world?
Quotation 1: 1862, Routledge’s Popular Guide to London and its Suburbs.
« London is the political, moral, physical, intellectual, artistic, literary, commercial and social centre of the world […] no other city possesses the wealth, importance and abounding population which distinguish it. To London, as to the true centre of the world, come ships from every clime, bearing theproductions of nature, the results of labour and the fruits of commerce […] Its merchants and princes; the resolves of its financiers make and unmake empires and influence the destiny of the nations. »

22. Quotation 2: 1891  Sydney Webb ( )British politician and founder of the London School of Economics)
« London is more than a city: it is a whole kingdom in itself with revenues exceeding those of mighty principalities. With its suburbs it exceeds all Ireland in population: if it were emptied tomorrow, the whole inhabitants of Scotland and Wales could do no more than refill it: the three next largest cities in the world could almost be combined without outnumbering its millions. »